Albion needed him most WRONG Merlin needed him most
by JamieCavanaugh
Summary: One shot. Merlin's gone on living without Arthur for hundreds of years but his faith in his return is waning. After seeing all that has happened, can Merlin really be expected to have hope? REVIEWS ARE LOVED AND APPRECIATED! :))))))))))))))))))))))))


Merlin sighed, looking sadly at the familiar lake. The morning sun shook in the deep blue waters that washed up against the small island. He had waited days, months and years for Arthur to return. Each day, no, with each passing hour, his despair grew greater. A few times he had even seen Arthur walking out of the lake, dressed in his armor and chainmail, still wearing the old symbol of Camelot, but these were nothing more than hopes and dreams, now shattered, eroded by the cruel hopelessness which time nurtured.

So far, around fifteen thousand years had past. Merlin knew the prophecy well, hearing it in his head every morning.

_When Albion's need is greatest, the Once and Future King shall return._

But in his fifteen thousand years, Merlin was certain that there were plenty of times when Arthur was needed, when he could have helped reunite the world. He thought back to the time of the Second World War. He remembered with sadness all the lives taken in that pointless war, all the children orphaned, all the lives destroyed and all the innocence stolen from children who had been forced to grow up. He remembered himself . . .

* * *

_It was a cold night that winter. Merlin pulled his thin coat tighter around him. He glanced down at his thin, boney hands, thanking the heavens for the umpteenth time for magic. He still remembered that aging potion Gaius would give him. He felt powerful in his older skin, more in control. Being immortal, his age was frozen at where he first found out who he truly was, but that version of him was the one he hated the most. It was a constant reminder of his failure. Failure to protect Camelot from invaders. Failure to protect the last dragons from their untimely death. But most of all his failure to fulfill his destiny. His failure to save his best friend._

_He shook himself mentally. Thinking about his failures would in no way correct them. He lifted his head from the scarred ground, taking in the appearance of the buildings left in ruins by the German Blitz attacks. He was grateful for his old appearance. It prevented him from taking part in the war. It wasn't that he was afraid of dying. He couldn't do that. It was taking part in a war he didn't believe in. A war that he had anticipated since 1905. Once again, Merlin was speechless at seeing the destruction humans could cause. And those were humans without magic. As insane as he knew it sounded, he strongly believed that at the worst times in history, humans are the least humane creatures on the planet. At night he'd have nightmares, horrible dreams about what was happening on the front. He saw men's arms ripped off, children crying, women raped. He hoped that these dreams were a sign that Arthur would return, but it was already 1944 and there was no sign of him. Merlin could sense the war effort decreasing._

_He was heading to his house. Only during war times did he have one. At other times he'd travel the world, searching for traces of the no longer relevant art of magic. He recalled the fall of Camelot. To him, it wasn't when soldiers marched in from the east. It was when people came, people from lands he hadn't heard of. They condemned magic and somehow managed to get to Gwen, taking advantage of her old age and fading memory. They spread their own religion. It was worse than Uthur's reign. Far worse. The art of magic nearly died out completely. Merlin fled, along with many other sorcerers. Magic was no longer a crime in Camelot but most still practiced in secret. Merlin expected this threat to magic to vanish, get erased in the sands of time. But it didn't. It kept on growing. Soon magic was considered to be work of the Devil. _

_But people no longer believed in magic, in what they couldn't see._

_A woman was walking a little distance from him. She was dressed well; clearly working for a living like so many did nowadays. Her face was screwed up in worry, glancing up at the sky every so often. Merlin felt anger rising up in him. This woman should be taking shelter in one of the bomb sheds. She shouldn't be risking her life being out in the open like this. It angered Merlin, seeing people waste their lives away for no good reason. Another glance at her told Merlin he was correct. From the way this she was stumbling, it was obvious that she was drunk. Merlin also had the suspicion that she was returning from a night with her lover._

_Sirens._

_The woman screamed._

_Merlin looked up at the sky quickly, seeing the vague shaped of German airships, expecting a rain of bombs any second. The woman was running to the nearest building. She banged on the door, screaming and crying for help, for someone to save her. Her knocks seemed thunderous to Merlin but he knew no one would come. Fright deafens even the most giving people. When the woman saw him, she ran towards him, begging him to help her._

_"Oh God! Help me please! We have to get out of here! I can't die!" She cried, falling to his feet. Merlin wore no expression, seeing a bomb flying down next to them. He whispered words of the old religion and his eyes turned gold._

_The bomb exploded and the poor woman screamed yet again. But they were unharmed. A force field of sorts had materialized, shielding them from the bomb. The woman looked up at him in amazement. Merlin looked down, trying to smile kindly at her as he helped he to her feet. She was stiff. As soon as she was on her feet, she ran, screaming loader than ever._

_"Magic! God Save me!"_

_Merlin knew she'd go to some news station to tell the world, but with a war going on, he doubted anyone would pay much heed. He walked away quickly when he heard a bomb exploded a couple of streets away._

_The next morning he heard on the radio that a woman, seemingly rich had been killed by a building that had collapsed on her. Merlin vaguely registered that the building had been a block away from where he had been._

* * *

Merlin looked at the lake again. In it, so many of his friends rested. All had left him, as he knew they would. The pain ripped through him each time. Now he was careful no not make friends because he couldn't bare the thought of him outliving them.

He couldn't live like this any longer and he knew it. The pain just kept on growing and growing. He had long ago decided that if Arthur didn't return in a thousand years, he wouldn't come back at all. But his faith clung on to the hope that Arthur would return. But now, after all Merlin had seen, all the deaths, all the destruction, he knew that if Arthur hadn't come back by now, he never would.

Merlin knew he wouldn't succeed in dying by any normal way. He could only die by his own magic. So he stepped into the lake for what he planned would be the last time. He felt the cool water surround him at once, feeling relaxed and free for the first time in ages. He began the powerful spell in his mind, only speaking it out loud when his eyes turned golden. This was the end. He felt magic, all the magic that had been lost for so long surround him. He felt the energy whipping by him, slowly weakening him, easing him into his death. He closed his eyes and welcomed the old friend he had evaded for so long when-

"Merlin!" A voice boomed from the shore. Merlin immediately lost all concentration. No one knew him by that name. He'd been giving people pseudonyms if they ever asked. The Arthurian legend was quite famous and he just couldn't bear to hear people speaking about Arthur and all the others. He turned around.

There he was, looking as though he'd just gotten out of bed, Arthur stood, wearing his armor, chainmail and a cape with the emblem of Camelot. Merlin wondered if this was a hallucination but recognizing this Arthur as real he ran to him, stopping short, realizing he had nothing to say.

"You came back for Albion." Merlin whispered to Arthur, feeling truly happy for the first time in hundreds of years.

Arthur shook his head, his golden hair glittering in the sun. "I came back for you, Merlin. You've waited long enough." Arthur replied, smiling at his old manservant. Seeing a car speed by them, Arthur spoke with one eyebrow lifted, "I think you have a lot of explaining to do."

Merlin's smile could have lit up a thousand nights.


End file.
